The Rochester Institute of Technology

I went to RIT for one semester and I had already had enough. Although many dropped because their grades were unsatisfactory, I left with a 3.75 gpa because the college just plain sucks. The computer science courses hardly teach you independent thinking and were mind numbingly boring. The campus is like a prison, since it is so seperated from downtown Rochester. Even if you had a car, its not like there is a whole lot to do around town anyways. Not only that, but the campus is entirely brick and the CS buildings are on the other side of the campus (as is everything else, since it follows one straight path from the dorms, past the administration buildings, and finally to the class buildings). The people are nice, but many are shutins who step out into the halls only to get to class or a bathroom. No social life at all, even if you aren't into partying. This place breaks spirits like nothing else! Stay away!

1st Year Male -- Class 2006

Perceived Campus Safety: A, Education Quality: F

Well lets start off with what most people agree upon, campus life is non existent, there is absolutely nothing to do here, Rochester itself is laughably dull. Oh another thing this is NOT a place to go looking for a girlfriend, as they make up about 30 % of the population although it will definately seem like alot less.A large portion of the students are anti-social and tends to fall into the self absorbed/arrogant geek category, A good 20% of the school probably falls under that class. A small portion are extremely bored individuals that have nothing better to do other then something rather juvenile, microwaving mustard packets or random yelling and screaming come to mind. Dorm life is laughable and the fraternites are little known. The housing situation is despicable as a few hundred freshmen fight for a few slots of decent housing. There is no sense of "community spirit or school spirit" or whatever you may want to call it.

On to education, most people will say the education here is spectacular, and well it isn't. The physics department here is pure garbage with the exception of 2 teachers, and "reknowned" Computer Science department have maybe 2 teachers which students fight to get into their classes every quarter. Of course I am talking about the first to second year courses. The more specialized courses tend to have better professors but they are really nothing to write home about either and you still have teachers that really should be writing textbooks rather than teaching, in other words, their social skills make them very poor teachers. The Computer Engineering teachers tend to be good in quality with one or two exceptional ones and a few bad ones. The Liberal Arts department is one topic I can't go into too much since I haven't dealt with them too much and I have only taken a few Liberal Arts courses.

Onward to reputation, RIT Orientation for Computer related studies usually starts off with the proud fact that we are "Second in the field of Computer Engineering" and most will leave off the fact that " with colleges that don't have doctoral program", which leaves out all of the MITs and Columbias. Most people thought I was going to Rhode Island Tech. The Co-op oppurnities are good, which is the one thing I can definately say about RIT, there are a number of good names that take in RIT students. AMD, Intel, Lockheed Martin just to name a few. Final Comments: This is a good second choice school for Computer Engineering/Science/ IT students. If you can't get into the MITs and the Carnegies, then go here, but be warned, 3 months in and you will want to transfer, I definately am.

1st Year Male -- Class 2006

Perceived Campus Safety: A, Individual Value: F